This is a presentation that I prepared and delivered to students enrolled in the Bachelor's-level Information Studies programme offered by Charles Stur University.

1. Subject Foundations
INF 100 Tutorial 1
Chris Chan
chancp@hkbu.edu.hk

2. Learning Outcomes
By the end of tonight’s session, you will be able to:
Define the types of scholarly resources that you will be expected to use in
your assignments for this and future subjects
Identify library search tools that will enable you to find such resources
Construct effective search strategies for use in library search tools
Understand why it is essential to apply citation style consistently

3. How you will learn today...
Mini-lectures
Group discussions
In-class questions and exercises - answers to be
submitted via PollEverywhere using whatever smart
devices you have to hand...

4. Get set up for PollEverywhere!
Go to: PollEv.com/hkbulib

5. A little bit about me...
Graduated from CSU in 2008 with a Master of Library and Information
Management
Also in 2008, began working at the Hong Kong Baptist University Library
as an Information Services Librarian
From 2005 - 2008, worked in school libraries at two international schools
in Hong Kong, primary and secondary
Have done tutorials for CSU / HKU SPACE since 2009

6. Enough about me! Let’s find out
a bit more about you…
What type of library / information
organization do you work at?
Submit your answer via PollEverywhere

7. Reminder - Forum activity
If you haven’t done so already, remember to post in
the CSU Interact forum and introduce yourself to
the Subject Coordinator and your colleagues in
Australia!

8. HKUSPACE SOUL
SPACE has its own E-Learning
platform called SOUL
I will use it only to post copies
of my presentations, and also
to host a forum where you can
questions specific to HK
students
However, you should primarily
be using CSU Interact

9. Scholarly Sources

10. Group Discussion
What types of information resources do you use when
researching academic papers?
Submit your answers via PollEverywhere

11. Assignment 1: Annotated bibliography
In Assignment 1, you need to critically comment on
five scholarly resources:
One book
Three scholarly journal articles
One website

12. Peer review
Scholarly journal articles generally
must go through a process called
“peer review” before publication
Ensures that the articles are of
high quality
A common form is “double-blind”
peer review

13. Library Search Tools

14. e.g. LISTA
(Library, Information Science, and Technology Abstracts)
Indexes 560 core journals
Database Benefits
Focused search
Quality information
sources
Most include full text or
links to full text
Concept:
Search for information from many different
publications at the same time
Library databases

15. Another option:
Discovery service
Relatively recent trend in library
search
Allows access to the vast
majority of a library’s owned
and subscribed content via a
single search interface
All resource types included:
books, journal articles,
conference papers, etc.
CSU Library subscribes to
Primo Search

16. Search Strategy

17. Search strategy
To be successful in finding relevant material, you need to
employ appropriate search strategy in Library search engines
Poor search strategy:
importance of libraries in the information society
Better search strategy:
librar* AND (information society OR knowledge society)
Let’s look at the steps to a successful search strategy...

18. Step 1: Identify keywords
Select only those words that are relevant to the topic, i.e. libraries |
information society
Watch out for tricky “soft” words like impact, relationship, effects, etc.
What is the importance of libraries in the information
society?
libraries information society

19. Step 2: Apply truncation
Use truncation for variant word endings, e.g.:
librar* will find library, libraries, librarian, etc.
libraries information society
librar* information society

20. Step 3: Think of synonyms
librar* information society
The computer can’t do all your thinking for you! You need to tell it to
search for relevant similar words (synonyms)
You can use Boolean logic to combine similar terms into your search
strategy, or simply multiple searches using different synonyms
librar* AND (information society OR knowledge
society)

21. Exercise
Come up with an effective search strategy for the following topic:
Why are university libraries developing learning commons?
Submit your answers via PollEverywhere
Focus on choosing the correct keywords and applying truncation appropriately,
but it would be great if you can come up with synonyms too!

22. Live demo...
Finding LISTA on the CSU Library website
Keyword search
Getting fulltext of articles through SFX if necessary

23. Link Resolvers Explained!
Citation information in database (e.g. LISTA) sent to link
resolver
Link resolver (e.g. SFX) parses citation information and
identifies targets that contain full text and provides link(s)
User can access the fulltext at the target fulltext repository
(e.g. JSTOR, ScienceDirect, publisher platform)

24. Citation

25. Shows that you have done your research and read
widely
Allows your reader to find the original source
Attractive bibliographies make your work look more
professional
Ensures you avoid committing “accidental”
plagiarism
Why we cite

26. Plagiarism
Plagiarism remains a serious problem in
academia - take some time to review the
important information on this topic
located on the CSU website:
http://student.csu.edu.au/study/
plagiarism/understanding

27. APA Examples
Book
Gorman, M. (2000). Our enduring values: Librarianship in the
21st century. Chicago: American Library Association.
Journal article
Wallis, J. (2005). Cyberspace, information literacy and the
information society. Library Review, 54(4), 218-222. doi:
10.1108/00242530510593407

28. Citation Management Tools
Some tools exist that help streamline the citation
process
Such tools are part of most major library database
platforms
They are NOT perfect - you must still check the
citation yourself for mistakes
Some examples….

29. EBSCOhost

30. ProQuest

31. Online citation builders
For materials you found outside of the Library, you
will need to construct the citation yourself
Some online tools exist to make this process easier
- one example is NCSU Libraries Citation Builder
Just enter source information to produce citations -
remember to select APA style first!
Find it at: http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/citationbuilder

32. Summary
Make sure that you are using books and scholarly journal articles, not just
for the first assignment but all of your assignments that you do at CSU
Library search tools such as databases and discovery services allow you
to find relevant scholarly material easily
You will find more relevant items in library search tools (and in Google) if
you use effective search strategies
Correct and consistent application of citation style is an integral part of
academic writing - start developing good habits in this area now